Understanding shape-shifting polymers (w/ Video)

Understanding shape-shifting polymers (w/ Video): "While shape-shifting polymers have been known for a few decades, until now there has been no detailed understanding of the basic molecular behavior responsible for the materials’ properties, and so trying to adapt them to any new application was essentially “all just trial and error,” Anand says. A numerical understanding of their behavior didn’t matter for applications such as heat-shrink tubing, but increasingly these materials are being harnessed for critical applications in biomedical devices, data-storage systems or self-deployable space structures that require great precision."